SMACX, speed, and cd

[mindlace23]

I just started playing smacx after a long hiatus, and I've got a few questions:

Why is SmacX so slow? It starts slow, which I expected, but then everything is a decent speed for a while, and then it slows to a crawl.

I do have the v2.x patch.

Why does SmacX ask me for my CD? After v3 or something on SMAC it stopped asking me for a cd.

Thanks,
~mindlace